"I Know the Stars"
I know the stars by their names,Aldebaran, Altair,And I know the path they takeUp heaven's broad blue stair.
I know the secrets of menBy the look of their eyes,Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughtsHave made me sad and wise.
But your eyes are dark to meThough they seem to call and call--I cannot tell if you love meOr do not love me at all.
I know many things,But the years come and go,I shall die not knowingThe thing I long to know.
Words in this poem
- aldebaran n.
- A red star of the first magnitude, situated in the eye of Taurus; the Bull's Eye. It is the bright star in the group called the Hyades. [Ar. al-debaran, fr. dabar to follow; so called because this star follows upon the Pleiades.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"I Know the Stars" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Flame and Shadow, Project Gutenberg ebook #591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, "I Know the Stars", in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/i-know-the-stars.html, id L20796.
Form and metre
"I Know the Stars" is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A names · altairA · take · stairA
- 2 -A-A men · eyesA · thoughts · wiseA
- 3 ABAB meA · callB · meA · allB
- 4 -A-A things · goA · knowing · knowA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I know the stars by their names, | 7 | ······· |
| Aldebaran, Altair, | 6 | ˘/˘˘˘/ |
| And I know the path they take | 7 | ······· |
| Up heaven's broad blue stair. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I know the secrets of men | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| By the look of their eyes, | 6 | ······ |
| Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts | 6 | ······ |
| Have made me sad and wise. | 6 | ······ |
| But your eyes are dark to me | 7 | ······· |
| Though they seem to call and call-- | 7 | ······· |
| I cannot tell if you love me | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or do not love me at all. | 7 | ······· |
| I know many things, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But the years come and go, | 6 | ······ |
| I shall die not knowing | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The thing I long to know. | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.